As we enter Black History Month, I ask you please to listen to my stories of two giants of African-American literature who experienced the freeing power of literacy. In 1946, a young black man named Malcolm Little was locked away in the Norfolk Prison Colony to serve a term for robbery. In 1952, the […]
I’m now writing a series of grammar articles for The Saturday Evening Post. It makes me feel old when my friends under 60 ask me, “What city is that newspaper published in?” If you younger readers of this column don’t get the point of my lament, ask your chronologically endowed family and friends. They’ll […]
My column of two weeks ago endorsing the graceful use of terminal prepositions raised a storm of protests. This letter is one of many: Sorry Richard! I taught English for 34 years and my mother and grandmother also did the same. It is NOT proper English to place prepositions at the end of a […]
Recent reports indicate that new jobs are being created in some abundance but that there aren’t enough candidates who can speak and write clearly to fill those aborning positions. Part of the mismatch between job availability and the dearth of qualified applicants can be traced to lack of education in the art and craft of […]
On July 1 through July 3, 1863, at the Battle of Gettysburg, Pa., Americans slew Americans in the most lethal battle ever fought on United States soil. In that most pivotal clash of the Civil War, more than 51,000 soldiers were killed, wounded or reported missing. Four and a half months later, on Nov. […]
About a month ago, I wrote a column about George Orwell’s novel “Nineteen Eighty-Four” and the recent controversy surrounding the NSA surveillance of millions of Americans. That piece elicited more reader response than any other I have published in this space, so today I am serving up a second helping of Orwell. “From a […]
Labor Day was first celebrated in New York City in 1882, when the Central Labor Union held a parade to display the spirit of its trade and labor organizations. The show of solidarity went national in 1885, after a vote by the body that became the American Federation of Labor. Now observed in every […]
(Sadly, for my Internet readers, the contest in the article is open only to San Diego County residents) *** Zizzebots are “the marks on the bridge of one’s nose visible when one’s glasses are removed.” Elecelleration is “the mistaken notion that the more you press the elevator button, the faster it will come.” Carperpetuation […]
In the wake of recent revelations that the NSA collects data on millions of Americans, sales of the centennial edition of George Orwell’s novel “Nineteen Eighty-Four” have soared 5,800 percent on Amazon. During the first 35 years of its life, Orwell’s final and most famous book caught the attention of readers throughout the world — […]
I truly believe that we who are riding the planet today have more of a fascination with and skill in word games and letter puzzles than did our ancestors. Look at the plethora of crossword puzzles, word scrambles and pyramids in our newspapers and magazines. And look at the mailbags of letter play that I […]